Sunday, January 25, 2015

American Sniper / *** (R)

Chris Kyle: Bradley Cooper

Taya: Sienna Miller

Dauber: Kevin Lacz

Biggles: Jake McDorman

Dandridge: Cory Hardict

Marc Lee: Luke Grimes

Goat-Winston: Kyle Gallner

Jeff Kyle: Keir O’Donnell

Warner Bros. Pictures
presents a film directed by Clint Eastwood. Written by Jason Hall. Based on the
memoir by Chris Kyle and Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. Running time: 132 min.
Rated R (for strong and disturbing war violence, and language throughout
including some sexual references).

I find myself approaching my
review of Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” in much the same way I think the
filmmakers approached the material themselves—vey carefully. “American Sniper”
has been a runaway hit with audiences and grabbed a surprise 6 Oscar
nominations after an awards season where it barely made an impression
elsewhere. It tells the story of real life U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who is
credited as the deadliest American sniper in history. It is based on his own
memoir of the same name. A veteran he was trying to help killed Kyle on a
shooting range in 2013.

Eastwood’s movie has found
great praise from audiences and some criticism from celebrities claiming it
glorifies war and killing. I don’t believe it does either of those things, but
it may be guilty of memorializing Kyle’s triumphs without really delving too
deeply into his tribulations. It covers the problems of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder and some of Kyle’s own personal psychological struggles, but it feels
like it’s playing softball on those issues while heavily detailing his combat
experience in the Iraq War.

Opening with a harrowing
scene—which can be seen in most of the film’s trailers—the tough choices a
sniper must make are made frighteningly clear. Depicting Kyle’s first kill, he
must decide whether or not to shoot a child who threatens an American tank
column with a highly explosive grenade. The scene details the protocol of such
a situation as Kyle asks repeatedly for confirmation of what he sees. Without
any other visual confirmation from any other source, Kyle must decide for
himself whether this child is a viable threat or not. This is a choice that
should be left to no single person, but sometimes it must be.

From that point the story flashes
back to Kyle’s own childhood. Growing up in Texas, many of the edicts of his
adult choices can be traced back to his father’s lessons. After a schoolyard
fight where Kyle saves his brother from a bully by hitting harder, their father
explains the roles of a sheep flock. It is clear that Kyle sees America as his
flock, which he must protect from the wolves as one of its sheepdogs. With over
150 confirmed kills in the Middle East, Kyle always hit harder than the wolves.
Some of the celebrities that have come out against the film as some sort of
propaganda may be confusing Kyle for a sheep in wolves’ clothing. While a late
night comedian’s job in protecting the flock is to eek out those wolves hidden within the
flock, Bill Maher misunderstands the difference between the wolves and the
sheepdog here. The violence of both has him identifying them each as the same
thing, while missing the inherent evil of the wolf to sacrifice their own no
matter what. While the sheepdog here is warped by the violence of his deeds, he
is never willing to sacrifice one of his own flock, only himself.

It is this area where Kyle
has been damaged by his violent job, however, where the film falls somewhat
flat. While Eastwood and his screenwriter, Jason Hall, make very clear the
operating procedure, Kyle’s mastery of his role as a sniper and his skill as a
SEAL, and the terrible choices he must make in those roles; their handling of
the negative psychological effects of this on his personal and family life are
muddy to say the least. While they’re willing to acknowledge this dark aspect
of Kyle’s journey, they also seem unwilling to take any risks in depicting his
demons.

Take for example his
relationship with his wife Taya, played by Sienna Miller. We see how much it
hurts her that he chooses to return for four tours in the Middle East. We see
her plead with him and bite her tongue, but we never see them actually fight
about it, which surely they did. Both Miller and Cooper deserved nominations
for their roles here, only Cooper secured one; but it feels as if the filmmakers
didn’t want to offend any surviving family members by going deeper into their
married life.

Another weakness in the
filmmaking can be found in Eastwood’s notoriously efficient directorial style.
While it serves the underwritten scenes between Cooper and Miller well, one
scene in particular involves their baby daughter. Eastwood likes to shoot fast
and rumor has it that the baby they had for the scene was sick that day, so she
was substituted with a doll. The prop is so obviously a doll that it distracts
from the emotional impact of the scene. In another case of rushed filmmaking,
the climactic battle scene—which takes place in enemy territory in the heart of
a city—utilizes subpar CGI effects. In a dramatic overhead shot, intended to
set up the geography of the sequence, it is all too obvious that the vehicles
and people in the shot were added digitally.

To be sure, Eastwood and company have assembled a remarkable action
picture honoring a real life American hero. The movie’s depiction of the role
of the sniper in modern combat is engaging and tense. It brings into question
just what damage we might be inflicting on our soldiers with multiple tours of
duty and by engaging an enemy with a vastly different outlook on right and
wrong. The film works dramatically, although its resolution of these questions
shirks their complicated nature. “American Sniper” is a great memorial to Chris
Kyle, but it may have served him and our many war veterans better not to pull
its punches.

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About Me

Andrew D. WellsAndrew is a professionally trained actor and stage director. He was a reporter for the daily newspaper The Marshall Democrat-News. He has been critiquing film since Mr. Lucas released the first of his "Star Wars" prequels in 1999. His reviews can also be seen atMarshall Democrat-News